


Limbo

by Corrupted_Data



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sappy Old Men, in response to chapter 115, still praying for Levi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 09:32:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18029162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corrupted_Data/pseuds/Corrupted_Data
Summary: “This is a dream,” Erwin whispered.





	Limbo

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since the last time I've ever written something, not to mention the EruRI fandom has many talent writers that I wouldn't dream of being anywhere near their level of in-depth understanding about the ship let alone writing about these complicated old men. I apology if this piece is not meeting up with the expectations, but I tried.

He heaved a long soft sigh and turned, buried his face impossibly further in the warmth surrounding him so completely. He was almost intimately familiar with this scent, yet ever reminded himself to stop coming too close to the temptation. But he figured it was alright, for now. Cheek nuzzling against the solid beating pulse, without a need to open his eyes, he let his hand wander. Strong jaw, high cheekbone, the arch of that huge nose… every bit the aristocrat his chosen liege was born to be. The corner of his mouth turned up when his thumb purposefully brushed against thick eyebrows, he scoffed, “Still the fucking over-the-top quality toothbrushes, here.”

He got low chuckle breathed in his ear for a response, encouraged him nudging his nose along the column of that vibrating throat, earning himself a tightening of those arms around his shoulders and the small of his back. At last he opened his eyes to look into the blue, blue sky staring back at him, forever eluded Nile’s comprehension, smelt like nothing to Mike, yet more or less like an open book to him. He smiled. Oddly content.

“This is a dream,” Erwin whispered, necessarily confirmed his conclusion of this pleasant encounter ever since he had been vaguely aware of his surroundings.

Levi nodded in agreement. “One I don’t mind never waking up from.”

“That’ll be distraughtly…” Erwin ran his thumb from above his Ackerman’s right eyebrow, over the shuttered right eye, continuing downward, lingered on the slightly parted lips and ceased his trail when he almost reached Levi’s chin. “… _troublesome_.”

“I am comfortable here. Let this old body get some rest, will you?” Levi grumbled flatly, eyes closing again, settling himself back to press his ear against his Commander’s chest and found solace in counting Erwin’s steady heartbeats.

“Conveniently, it’s what I’m doing now.” Erwin murmured, lips caressing Levi’s temple as he spoke. “Hange is giving their best shot, I can’t afford to be slacking here.”

“Fuck!” Levi hissed, bunched up Erwin’s pristine shirt in his fists, forehead thumping on his liege’s shoulder in humiliation. “I was fucking filthy, smelling like dead fish, growing damn blade fragments on my dead body, and missing two fingers! At least my teeth are still intact!”

“Still charming to me,” Erwin cajoled his visibly distressed Captain, placed a hand on Levi’s nape guiding the ever-scowling countenance to lean back on his chest, putting a stop to the unwelcomed reminder. “And very much a darling all the same to lots of people you don’t know they even exist.”

“The fuck you are babbling on about? I bet that’s why the skull wearing black cape fucker over there hadn’t swung its scythe at me yet.” Levi sulked almost miserably, sagging against Erwin like a puppet with broken strings. “It’s even steaming from over thinking how come you can still tolerate me!”

“It cannot lay a claw on you, Levi,” Erwin shushed him with a kiss on his forehead, bright blue eyes never strayed from Levi’s, effortlessly ignoring the threat at his back (as he had been doing for a while) even with Levi helpfully pointed out. “Not with me in the way.”

It was that look again. One that chilled Levi to his bones when he saw it on Erwin’s face more recently after his Commander came back alive but missing his right arm. That very same look had targeted him way further back when they had been maneuvering through lower Sina, consequently spirited him away from that dark world he was familiar with since birth, introduced him to Hell and the thought of escaping had never crossed his mind, not from this man’s arms.

Now he felt slightly regret not choosing to turn Erwin into a titan. It was a passing thought but arousing enough. He would nestle on the shoulder of his Commander-turned-titan and, blew a wide, wide hole through the head of a certain 70-meters monkey trouble. He could taste the hysteria on his tongue, once he would kick down the door to that basement then, arming himself with the knowledge of thirteen years later he would have lost his sanity along with Erwin for real this time, by his own hands and swords for he would never let a mindless titan anywhere near his Commander.

His entire body shook in suppressed laughter, more bitter than mirth, Levi hold on his liege for dear life. “How…” He croaked, swallowed with difficult the fat lump magically appeared in his throat, “How can I miss something we never had…?”

“Maybe we’ll find our answer… next time.” Despite Erwin’s words, they both knew it was no more than a sweet nothing, an echo of the promise that had been broken enough time through human history and only found its happy ending in pondering minds that wished for something more optimistic to put heavy hearts at ease.

Yet, it managed to put the content smile back on Levi’s face. “Maybe next time,” He repeated, “Because I’m already so smitten with you reasoning with me now is fucking meaningless.”

Blue eyes gazed at him softened but nowhere less intense. “Levi…”

“How much,” The Captain cut in, “How much is this happiness?”

Erwin closed his mouth and, for the first time, shut his eyes.

Levi wouldn’t let him fall through his fingers, again. His hands caressed Erwin’s cheeks, one carding through his golden hair and curled around the blonde’s neck. “Would the price of my life suffice? For my heart had long offered to you.”

“Even after I had used you and sacrificed countless of our comrades for my personal gain?” Erwin stared back with a pained smile.

“Your dream didn’t hurt humanity, or rather, _Eldia_.” Levi countered, “If not for you, we would have still been completely clueless, still unknowingly sitting around waiting to be eaten in our sleep and didn’t even know what hit us or why we were all dead. For the record, I let you die for us as our heroic Commander, no longer the dreamer you believed yourself to be.”

“And for that, as I had said before and I will say it again now. Thank you, Levi.”

“Fucking hell, you creep!” Levi snapped, turning his head away. While he managed to unsuccessfully hide the embarrassing virgin blush on his face, his reddened ears were in plain sight. “Fuck your girly smile. I’m gonna be constipated on Hange!”

“I doubt they would mind as long as you will be waking up in due time.”

There was a stillness in Levi and Erwin gave him all the patience in the world, knowing they had never let each other down. When their eyes met again, his jaw was set. “Erwin, even if this body becomes useless, I will see everything to the end and die fulfilling our promise once and for all, this time.”

Erwin nodded once. “That was a good response, Captain. I believe you.”

Levi let Erwin help him straighten up until they stood facing each other, as Captain and his Commander. “Well then, your order.”

“Live, Levi,” Erwin smiled at his wide-eyed Captain. He took a step to close the distance between them and drew Levi back in his arms and, whispered in his ears, “This is an order. Obey.”

If Erwin felt his shirt rapidly soaking up hot water fallen from Levi’s eyes, he didn’t acknowledge it anymore than his Ackerman. And only secured Levi all the more against himself just as desperately as Levi was reciprocating a long overdue unspoken truth.

“Roger, Erwin.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tl;dr  
> I started reading the manga around mid August last year. It was emotional all the way and every first week of these past 3 months since chapter 112. It'll take a while until I can see birthday cake and monkey for what they are again, after heichou's birthday day with monkey sashimi on top blew up right in his face. 
> 
> I'm practically going numb at the arrival of chapter 115. Maybe this upcoming interview about the EruRi relationship will heal me for the lie starting in April 28. I know I'm fairly pleased with Animedia's newest cover about the serum bowl.


End file.
